Okay, so you know I don't own Merlin, right?
Anyway, thanks to my readers for giving this story a chance. It won't probably be as good as my previous one though.
I do hope you'll like this chapter.
_
At the banquet, Merlin is standing behind the King, a pitcher firmly placed in his hands. Ronald is standing a bit further, observing the servants. When the red haired man notices that Merlin is looking at him, he grins and winks. The secret warlock feels all the blood drain from his cheeks and a shiver runs down his spine. Memories of the past come flooding back with just that little gesture. His bully used to wink at him when he was up to something. He knew that, when this happened, he had to try and stay away from him. But most of the time, faith had other ideas, and he would run into the larger boy.
"Merlin!" Arthur suddenly shouts at him.
He quickly gets forward to refill the King's goblet, careful not to spill anything.
"Didn't you see me motioning? Or are you blind as well as dumb?"
"I'm sorry, sire." Merlin apologizes before stepping back.
Arthur arches a brow and shares a confused look with Leon, who's sitting on his right side. They had expected a witty retort from the servant but even the sarcastic tone to the word 'sire' was completely lost. The royal shrugs it off and tries to enjoy the banquet but he can't help himself to look back at his manservant a few times. The boy seems lost in his own thoughts and glances nervously towards Ronald.
'So that's what's bothering him.' the King thinks silently and he wonders if it was a good idea to hire the man. 'On the other hand, he did safe my life.'
Later that evening, Arthur sends Merlin away.
"Ronald can look after me this evening. Go and get some sleep, you look like you need it."
"But Arthur…"
"No Merlin. Do as I say. You should be happy that you're getting some time off."
"Yes, sire." the servant answers with a sigh and he bows before retreating to his chambers.
The King follows him with his eyes until he's out of sight. A feeling of regret forming in his stomach.
Merlin walks into the physicians chambers and goes straight to his bedroom.
"What's wrong, my boy?" Gaius asks.
"Nothing." the young boy replies without looking at his surrogate father. He goes up the steps towards his room and closes the door behind him. He lets himself fall on his bed and sighs. Although he would never admit it, being dismissed by Arthur like that did hurt. And it was all because of Ronald. The mere thought of the man sends shivers down his spine again. He curls himself up into a ball and lets darkness take over.
Merlin is running through the forest. He's already running pretty fast but he isn't fast enough. He can hear the footsteps behind him. The one who's chasing him is gaining in on him. He wills his feet to go faster but to no avail. His breathing is becoming labored and his side begins to sting. He looks behind him but realizes soon that he shouldn't have done that. He trips over a root and falls to the ground. His chaser is on him in a second, pinning him to the ground. Merlin squeals and tries to fight his attacker off, to no avail. His attacker is much stronger than him.
"I win!" Will shouts happily.
"It's not fair!" Merlin complains. "You're so much faster than I am."
"Not fair? Merlin if you use your magic, no one will be able to win from you."
"You know I can't. You know what they'll do to me if they ever find out."
"So, they're hurting you already, aren't they?"
"They will kill me if they know, Will."
Both boys become quiet and Will gets off his friend.
"Look what we have here!" a voice suddenly shouts.
Merlin and Will look up and quickly scramble to their feet.
"It's the little runt and his friend." another voice says. Five older boys are walking into the clearing, flexing their muscles as to intimidate the two younger boys.
The raven haired boy narrows his eyes at the biggest of the five, the one with red hair and dark green eyes. He's not going to show them that he's afraid, not this time. The boys get closer to them and Will tries to pull Merlin back but to no avail.
"Leave us alone, Ronald!" Merlin says. To his surprise he sounds much braver than he feels.
"What do you say!" the red haired teenager shouts angrily. He grabs the young boy by his collar and lifts him off the ground.
"Let him go!" Will shouts in an attempt to help his friend.
"As you wish." Ronald answers dryly and he drops the helpless boy to the ground. A loud 'crack' echoes through the forest, followed by an ear piercing scream.
"Merlin!" Will shouts and he kneels down by his friends side, only to be pulled back up again. Someone is forcing his arms on his back and is pulling him away from the raven haired boy.
"How dare you speak to me!" the red haired boy shouts while kicking at the boy on the ground.
"You are nothing but a worthless bastard!" he kicks when he says the word 'bastard' to give it a little more force. Merlin grits his teeth together. He's not going to scream again. He won't give them that satisfaction. He tries to curl in on himself in order to protect his ribs but someone kicks his back, making him unfold again. It's raining punches and kicks now but he doesn't know who's doing what to him. He can hear Will calling out to him and than suddenly he can hear his own voice. He shouts and screams to let them stop, until Ronald grabs him by his throat. He tries to fight off the tight grip and gasps for the much needed air but nothing works. He's slowly tumbling into the darkness but right before he closes his eyes he can hear other people calling out his name. Is that his mother he hears? Then, everything turns black.
Merlin wakes up, all sweaty and shaking. Tears are running down his face as the memory stirs up old emotions. That was the day Ronald had gone too far. The village elders had decided that the red haired teenager was out of control and should go and live elsewhere. Ronald was obviously seething about this decision. He blamed Merlin for everything and swore that one day, he would make him pay. It seems now that time has come.
It still is a bit too early to get out of bed so Merlin lets himself fall back into his pillow and sighs. Maybe he should tell Arthur about this part of his past. But than again, the prat thought that Ronald had saved his life. Telling on him now wouldn't do much good.
Morning light wakes the young warlock up, telling him that he must have fallen asleep again. He quickly gets out of bed and dresses himself. If he can't get rid of his childhood bully by telling on him, he must prove to Arthur that he's a better servant, that he needs him. First thing on his list, breakfast. The raven haired boy hurries out of his chamber, shouts something like a 'good morning' at his mentor and rushes to the kitchens. He fills a plate with fruit, bread, meat and cheese, takes a pitcher with water and makes his way to the royal chambers. Smiling to himself because he managed to get on time for a change, he pushes the door open. His smile falls from his face the second he sees what's happening. Ronald is already there, standing behind a fully dressed Arthur, who's eating a luxurious breakfast. The table is covered with plates, filled with eggs, salads, meat, bread, fruit and cheese. There's enough food for the whole army.
"Is that lunch?" Arthur asks as he spots Merlin at the door.
Ronald gives the King some more meat.
"This is lovely, Ronald." the royal says, gesturing at his full plate.
The raven haired servant is at a loss for words, he simply stares at the scene in front of him. Ronald gives him a satisfied grin and winks again. The young boy frowns.
"Is there anything else you need doing, sire?" he asks quickly.
"No, I think that Ronald has got it all covered." the royal replies without looking up.
"Ooh, I regret, sire," the red haired man says, "there's one thing I failed to do." He glances towards Merlin who eyes him suspiciously. "Muck out your horses."
The young warlock sighs. He could have guessed as much.
"Off you go." Arthur says to his manservant, not noticing the evil smirk on Ronald's face.
"I'll get the door for you." the red haired man says, walking over to Merlin who steps back involuntarily. He glances between the two men, sadness creeping into his heart. He rushes out of the door, biting back the tears. Being dismissed for the second time hurted more than he could say.
The raven haired boy drops the untouched food off at the kitchens and makes his way towards the stables. He hates mucking out the horses but if he wanted to stay in Arthur's good grace he couldn't do anything but to obey.
He is filling his first wheelbarrow with dirty hay and dung when something comes flying through the window. The young warlock doesn't notice it though, until it is too late. The smoke coming from the ball makes him sway on his feet, his head starts to pound and everything around him becomes fuzzy. His knees give out and he falls to the ground into sweet oblivion.
Ronald takes his chance and rushes into the stables. He frees all the horses and chases them outside. An evil grin is plastered on his face as he looks at the sleeping servant. 'This is going to be good.' he thinks silently. The red haired man sneaks out of the stables just in time to see Arthur himself rushing towards the building. The King had been on the marketplace when the horses came running by.
The royal kneels next to his sleeping servant. He had been worried to see his young friend lying on the ground like that but once he made sure that the man was simply asleep that worry quickly turned into annoyance.
Merlin stirs and slowly opens his eyes as if the presence of his master is enough to wake him. Still a bit dazed he looks around until he notices Arthur. He quickly pushes himself to his feet.
"Sire." he says, confusion clear in his voice.
"What are you doing?" the royal asks.
"Nothing." the dark haired boy replies, looking around in confusion.
"I can see that."
"I wasn't sleeping." Merlin tries to ensure the King but while he tries to wrap his mind around what had happened. "I was, I was just bending down."
"Looking for something?" the blonde asks.
"Yes." the secret warlock replies, hoping silently that his friend was buying his lame excuse.
"Perhaps we're looking for the same thing?"
"What?"
"Ooh, I don't know." the royal says, looking around the empty stable. "The horses!"
"The horses?" It's only then that Merlin notices that all of Arthur's steeds are gone.
"One mistake, I can understand. Everyone has a bad day now and then. But this is one thing after another!" Arthur rants.
The raven haired boy places his hands on top of his head and shakes it confused.
"I don't know what happened." he says. Arthur can see that the young man really has no idea but before he can say something more, Ronald interrupts him.
"Sire, don't be too hard on him. He's a good servant, he's just tired." he says while grabbing Merlin's arm who flinches away from the touch.
"I am not tired!" he practically shouts.
"Maybe, if he had the evening off…" the red haired man starts.
"I don't want the evening off!" the young warlock interrupts him.
"A good night's rest."
"I did not fall asleep!" Merlin tries again.
"I'm more than willing to take over his duties tonight." Ronald concludes.
"Perhaps you're right." Arthur says.
"No!"
"Shut up, Merlin."
"Can't you see what he's trying to do? He's trying to get rid of me and if you weren't such a clotpole you'd see that!" the raven haired servant shouts, his hurt feelings clear in his voice.
"A what?" the royal asks, raising his eyebrows.
Merlin bites his lip. Yes, sure, Arthur is a clotpole. But now isn't really the time to say that word out loud and in front of the King himself.
"Clotpole, he said clotpole." Ronald says, sounding much like a little child.
"Ronald is right, he can look after me tonight. You can go home and think about whether you want to be my servant or not." the offended royal says.
"But…"
"Go!" Arthur hisses.
At that moment, the raven haired boy looks so sad and lost that Arthur wants to take back his words, hug him and tell him he's sorry. But he reprimands himself. 'You're the King. People should respect you as such.'
Merlin hurries out of the stables and runs. He doesn't know where he's going but he wants to get as far away from Ronald as possible. Of course he wants to stay Arthur's servant. The King is his friend. Or at least he thought he was. But the nightmare from his past had come and made a fine job of messing with both his present and future.
His feet bring him to the training fields where the knights are practicing at the moment.
"Merlin!" Gwaine shouts happily when he sees his friend.
The boy doesn't seem to notice him and places himself on a bench.
"Hey, what's the matter, mate?" the long haired knight asks while wrapping his arm around the boy's shoulders.
"Nothing." he answers. He doesn't want to talk about it.
Gwaine frowns but doesn't ask anything more. They are soon joined by the others. Lancelot places himself on the other side of Merlin while Leon, Elyan and Percival keep standing.
"You seem happy." the black haired knight says ironically.
The young servant forces a smile on his face. "I'm alright." he says. But none of them belief it for a second. They know their friend though. 'I'm alright' was his way of cutting them off, of telling them he doesn't want to talk about whatever was bothering him.
"What are you all doing?" a voice shouts from the other side of the field.
All men look up to see Arthur walking their way, followed by Ronald. Merlin quickly looks down and wishes he could disappear. This doesn't go unnoticed by the knights who immediately connect the dots together.
"Princess!" Gwaine shouts. "Can I talk to you for a second?"
"Of course." the royal answers with a nod.
They both walk a small distance away from the group. The sturdy knight glances over to his friends before he starts.
"What have you done?" he asks in a serious tone.
"What do you mean?" Arthur asks confused.
"Merlin." the dark haired man says simply, gesturing over to his friend.
The royal looks over to his friend and notices how pale he is. It even seems like he's shaking a little bit and he looks so sad.
"Nothing!" he tries but Gwaine isn't buying it. "He fell asleep in the stables and I gave him the evening off. That's all."
"You dismissed him?" the knight asks. Arthur doesn't answer but looks at the ground.
"Can't you see what hiring that Ronald guy has done to him?"
"I thought it would be good for Merlin if he had a friend to share his job with."
"Good for Merlin? And a friend? I don't belief for a second that they are friends." Gwaine almost growled.
"They said that they were!" the King tries to defend himself.
"No! Ronald said that they were. I have never seen Merlin act so cool and distant towards anyone."
The blonde looks back to his friends and sees how the red haired man is standing a bit to the side while the others try to engage Merlin in a conversation.
"Look, whatever relationship those two have, I am certain it isn't friendship. He may have saved your life yesterday, but I don't trust that bloke." the sturdy knight says, motioning towards Ronald.
"I say we force the truth out of Merlin. He has to tell us who Ronald really is."
Arthur sighs but nods. He doesn't like to see his friend upset and now, with Gwaine's arguments, he can't deny that something bigger is happening between the two servants.
Later that evening, Arthur dismisses Ronald and calls for his five trusted knights. They gather around in the royal's room.
"What's happening?" Elyan asks.
"I think we all noticed how Merlin is behaving strange since Ronald showed up." Arthur starts and they all nod in agreement.
"Gwaine had the idea to force the truth out of Merlin."
They all turn their gaze to the long haired man who grins and shrugs.
"We can also just ask him. But where's the fun in that?" he says amused.
The men roll their eyes and shake their heads.
"Just go and get him here." Arthur orders dryly.
Gwaine leaves the room and comes back a few minutes later, pushing a confused Merlin into the chamber.
"What's going on?" the young warlock asks suspiciously.
"Sit!" the King commands and points to an empty chair.
Merlin looks from one man to the other, trying to figure out what they're thinking. A reassuring smile from Lancelot makes him move over to the chair and sit down.
"Merlin," Arthur starts, "who's Ronald?"
"What?" he asks perplexed.
"Who. is. Ronald?" the royals asks again.
"I heard you the first time." the dark haired servant says. "What I don't get is why you want to know."
"We noticed how you're behaving nothing like yourself." Lancelot explains.
"It started when Ronald arrived." Percival follows.
"Ooh…"
"So, who is Ronald?" Gwaine asks.
"And don't try lying about it!" the blonde King warns.
"Ronald is…" the secret warlock sighs and thinks for a moment. "He is my nightmare from the past."
Arthur and the knights all look at him questionably.
"What do you mean?" Leon carefully asks.
"When we were kids, Ronald used to bully me." the servant says with a sigh.
"He grouped together with a few other kids and… well, they called me names and such."
Merlin studies his hands, not willing to meet his friend's eyes.
"And such?" Arthur asks, secretly hoping that calling names was the only thing that had happened.
"They used to beat me." the raven haired boy answers silently.
"What!" Gwaine shouts furious, making his friend look up in shock.
"Why didn't you tell us?" Lancelot asks.
The young servant shrugs. "I hoped he had grown out of it. But I should have guessed he had come here for his revenge."
"Revenge?" the King asks, not really seeing where this was going.
"Are you going to repeat everything I say?" Merlin asks, tilting his head a bit.
The royal narrows his eyes at his servant. "What do you mean with 'revenge'?"
The raven haired boy sighs and looks at his hands again.
"One time, it had gotten out of hand. Ronald almost killed me but my mother and a few other parents had come to search for us. They brought us back to the village. The village elders decided that Ronald was out of control. They forced him to leave Ealdor. He had to leave his family and friends behind. You can imagine how angry that made him. He blamed me and swore that he would one day make me pay for ruining his life."
"You should have told us!" Arthur shouts angrily.
He isn't angry with Merlin but more with himself. How could he not have seen something like that.
"I would have send him away, Merlin." the royal says much calmer now.
"In fact, that's what I'm going to do now! He'll be banished from Camelot. You won't have to see him ever again." the King turns in order to leave his room and find the scumbag.
"Arthur, don't!" the servant shouts as he gets out of the chair and pulls on the blonde's arm.
"Why not, he deserves nothing less! He tried to get rid of you Merlin! Not that I would ever send you away like that. Merlin I'm so sorry, I didn't see what was happening. I thought he only meant to do good."
"It's alright." the dark haired boy tries to assure his friend. "I know you wouldn't send me away. It's all over now. I should have told you sooner."
"I'm still going to make him leave the castle. He better doesn't show his face here ever again." Arthur growled.
"Right with you, mate." Gwaine says in a voice that matches his angry face.
Both men leave the room. The others stay inside but none of them speaks a word. Only when they hear commotion coming from the courtyard, they walk over to the window. They can see how both Gwaine and Arthur make Ronald leave. The red haired man is angry, to say the least. He's shouting at the apple loving knight while he's holding his nose that seems to be bleeding. Percival chuckles and shakes his head.
"Trust Gwaine to hit the man." he says. Merlin can't help but smile a small smile.
"This isn't over!" Ronald shouts, turning his head towards Arthur's room. "You won't get rid of me that easily, Merlin!" After that he runs away quickly before either Gwaine or the King decide to kill him on the spot.
The raven haired boy backs away from the window. He trembles and Lancelot has to help him get back into the chair.
"We won't let him get to you, Merlin." Leon says with a calm voice.
"Yeah, don't worry." Elyan tries to reassure him with a smile.
A few minutes later they are joined by Arthur and Gwaine again.
"Thank you." Merlin says honestly, smiling at his two friends. "Thank you all."
_
Well, that was something alright. As you may have noticed, I have been stealing some dialogue and other stuff from the episode "The Curse Of Cornelius Sigan". That's me, having little inspiration. I do hope you liked it, if you didn't, I'm sorry.
Next chapters will be all new, I promise.
- Thanks to Mojito737! You were my first reviewer! Yay! I do hope you keep liking the story.
- And thank you morningstar115! I'm glad to see a familiar name between the reviews. I'm happy to hear that you like the story and I hope I won't disappoint you.
